Kaminey

Written, Music, Directed by: Vishal Bhardwaj

Lyrics by: Gulzar

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte

When Vishal Bhardwaj does not make films about children (Makdee, The Blue Umbrella) he ventures into the murkier side of human character and society (Maqbool, Omkara). He doesn’t see world in black and white. His world is grey, so are its characters and its colour. Kaminey is no different.

Charlie and Guddu (Shahid Kapoor) are identical twins with physical disabilities. Charlie lisps while Guddu stammers. But the similarities end here. Both are very different in their characters and outlook towards life. They dislike each other and hence live separately. Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) is a young, headstrong Marathi girl who will go to any extent to get her love (Guddu) even if it means not telling him that her brother (Amole Gupte) is a gangster with political aspirations. The problem is that the brother is contesting election from a party which stands for Marathi chauvinism so he can not marry his sister to a North Indian. On Charlie’s part, he has just lost his entire money in Horse racing because whoever he had fixed double crossed him. Accidentally he lands himself in the middle of a drug deal between corrupt anti narcotics department and Mafia. Now, both have to run for their lives simultaneously. Their paths are inevitable to cross and they cannot escape from revisiting their intertwined history.

The film is essentially a ‘Satire’ with element of ‘Absurd’ throughout the film. It is a satire on the divisional politics, law enforcement departments, inter-racial marriage (there is very witty reference to Rizwanur Rahman case), relationships and above all society’s double standards. The director explores the sibling relationship in different milieus. Apart from Charlie and Guddu, there are three Bengali Muslim brothers who are big bookies, two corrupt brothers at anti narcotics department, the two African brothers who smuggle drugs and of course Sweety with her brother. The dynamics between them actually determines the proceedings of the film.

The lead actors deliver their best performances till date. Shahid Kapoor has done so well in the double role that you will feel that two different actors are playing those roles. Priyanka Chopra is superb and greatly convincing - whether she claims to know “Home Science” or when she pleads to save her husband’s life. Amole Gupte (The writer of Taare Zameen Par) is excellent as the opportunist politician.

But the film belongs to Vishal Bhardwaj. Apart from the credits mentioned above, he has also written the dialogues, co-written the screenplay, done the background score (which is superb) and sung the title track. This is proof enough of his versatility as well as completeness as a filmmaker. The characters are very real yet they are entirely new. His understanding of complexities of characters and society is amazing. The film is like an onion with multiple layers in it. You need to keep all your senses open to explore it. He is arguably one of the best filmmakers in the country we have today.

The person who stands tall to him is the lyricist Gulzaarsaab who never seems to resort to ghisa-pita lyrics that we come across in every other film. His lines are extraordinary as expected from a distinguished poet. The music of the film ably supports the lyrics and takes the soundtrack to a different level. No wonder it is ruling the charts.

Finally, this is amazing piece of cinema which will go into the annals of Bollywood as outstanding work. But the only hitch is that as viewers we are so much fed with escapist cinema that it will take some time till we get the hang of Vishal Bhardwaj’s dark yet real world. But keep patience, the experience will be wonderful.

Rating ****1/2